e cold; he then lay down to sleep. When he awoke on
the following morning, he was amazed to find the stone beneath the ashes
of his fire melted and turned to silver. He joyfully communicated the
discovery to his master, Don Jose Ugarte, a Spaniard, who owned a
hacienda in the Quebrada de Huariaca. Ugarte forthwith repaired to the
spot, where he found indications of a very rich vein of silver ore,
which he immediately made active preparations for working. In this mine,
which is distinguished by the name of _La Descubridora_ (the
discoverer), silver is still obtained. From the village of Pasco, about
two leagues distant, where already productive mines were worked, several
rich mine owners removed to Llauricocha; here they sought and discovered
new veins, and established new mining works. The vast abundance of the
ore drew new speculators to the spot; some to work the mines, and others
to supply the necessary wants of the increasing population. In this
manner was rapidly founded a city, which, at times when the produce of
metal is very considerable, counts 18,000 inhabitants.

In Cerro de Pasco there are two very remarkable veins of silver. One of
them, the Veta de Colquirirca, runs nearly in a straight line from north
to south, and has already been traced to the length of 9,600 feet, and
the breadth of 412; the other vein is the Veta de Pariarirca, which
takes a direction from east-south-east to west-north-west, and which
intersects the Veta de Colquirirca precisely, it is supposed, under the
market-place of the city. Its known extent is 6,400 feet in length, and
380 feet in breadth. From these large veins numberless smaller ones
branch off in various directions, so that a net-work of silver may be
supposed to spread beneath the surface of the earth. Some thousand
openings or mouths (_bocaminas_) are the entrances to these mines. Most
of these entrances are within the city itself, in small houses; and some
are in the dwellings of the mine-owners. Many of them are exceedingly
shallow, and not more than five hundred deserve the name of shafts. All
are worked in a very disorderly and careless way; the grand object of
their owners being to avoid expense. The dangerous parts in the shafts
are never walled up, and the excavations proceed without the adoption
of any measures of security. The consequence is, that accidents caused
by the falling in of the galleries are of frequent occurrence; and
every year the lives of numbers of